Day Thirty Evening
Today I made it to Brenham, Texas, about 64 miles down range from Bastrop, before nearly expiring and calling it a day. It was hot today, at least hot by my Northwesterner standards, high of 88 and humidity up there near saturation. With a pretty packed agenda this morning, I got a late start out of Bastrop and rode until 5:30 pm. I noticed my heart rate was higher than normal for my output, in the mid to upper 120s. And there were times late in the afternoon when I felt chilled despite being hot. Signs. So I paid attention, and decided that pushing to Navasota, still 25 miles away, was not a reasonable goal. As in, idiotic to try for it.
Whataburger!
I took a few pictures early today, and stopped. What I photographed early was the same as what I passed the next hour, and the next, and next. Texas here is pretty, but it's the same pretty, for how many hundreds of miles I do not know. Green lawns, good highway, copses of the same trees around fields of the same, something. Cows, cars, turn lanes, fences, houses are entirely consistent. Many men on riding lawn mowers. Almost as many lawn mower riders as 18-wheelers on the highway. Thousands of acres of cropped lawn and thousands of hours devoted to cropping it.
The mix of vehicles is different too. In California, around Joshua Tree and the Mojave Desert, there were a lot of adventure vans and trucks pulling trailers of off-road vehicles and the like. In Arizona and New Mexico, it was retirees in RVs and pickups pulling travel trailers. In West Texas, more pickups, but pulling farm equipment and worker dude stuff. Central Texas, just big, impressive pickups, looking like they just went through the car wash, drivers mostly wearing cowboy hats. Here, the family SUV seems to be the vehicle of choice. Less through truckers, more commuters.
Traffic seems to behave differently through the day. In the morning, drivers seem to be calm, even if there are a lot of them. By mid morning, most folks seem to be where they needed to get to, probably work, and the roads thin out. In early afternoon, the work-at-the-same-place people are not on the road, but there are often lots of service trucks--plumbers, electricians, and the like--moving to their afternoon service calls. By 3:30 or 4:00 PM, volume builds with everyone on the road, driving faster and closer, and there is a manic-ness to the traffic. It's not that people drive worse or are impolite, but everyone seems to drive like they are late and need to get somewhere fast. Not hostile, but impatient and maybe frustrated. It's that traffic, in the heat of the day, after I've already put down 60+ miles, when I need to be off the road. Because I'm feeling just as late and impatient as they are, but I ache as well.
Another first for today. I wore the first size medium shirt I've bought for myself in about 2 decades. Let's be honest, I've been a large, which is larger than I need to be, for a while. So sleeving on and zipping up a medium—and it more or less fit!—is a thing that shouldn't go unannounced. This ride is chiseling me down, and I like it. I know how to stay a medium: ride across continents! I'll figure out some closer-to-home to do too.
Also, since I'm on the topic, I get the sensation of tired legs in parts of my legs that didn't exist a month ago. New places to ache! And I'm getting my butt back. I feel it when I start to power up a hill. I feel it when I sit down in a chair. More going on back there. Okay, it's not a Ken Griffey Jr. butt, the kind that powers a swing that knocks a hardball into the outfield seats 400 feet away. But my trend line is in the right direction.
Another notable is I swapped my very supple rear tire, my favorite Rene Herse Barlow Pass 35 millimeter speedsters, for a Continental Terra Speed, which is not quite as fast a tire, but is more durable. I put a liner in the tire as well. Without going all the way to forklift-tire toughness, the plan is to add some toughness to my rear tire, which carries much more load than the front tire, and is also far more of a pain to repair.
I'm going to be getting to bed early and getting up early. A new discipline to be on the road at or shortly after sunrise needs to anchor my ride-across-the-South strategy. I doubt I can acclimatize to heavy work in muggy heat.
Tomorrow is just 55 miles. My childhood friend Gerry now lives in NW Houston and his house is tomorrow's objective. It's heating up in Texas, and will be hot in Louisiana next week too. I will be NOT riding during the hottest days in May, when I take my break in New Orleans. That was fortuitous planning. Actually just luck. Then it cools a bit as I head towards the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, and the Florida panhandle. So this upcoming week is crunch week, temperature-wise.
I’d love to hear from you. Donate to the ride and send along your words of encouragement and tell me why getting kids outside matters to you.
